Early on, the US response seemed disorganized and chaotic, without enough urgency. And I thought about raising the alarm, but I figured they had plans for stuff like this, that the US Gov't has a lot of resources, that they'd get in gear after a bit and handle it okay. I thought the main issue was they were wasting time and missing an opportunity to get ahead of the virus.
Never did I imagine the US would just bungle the whole thing, then the Feds would wash their hands and punt to the States, and that there never would be a coordinated national policy. Even more mindboggling was the politicization of the virus itself and mask-wearing.
And then after inadequate lockdowns and half measures, many states started opening up too soon. While the Feds own reopening guidelines were just tossed in the trash. And again it looked like a disaster and I should raise the alarm.
But I'm not there and don't see what's going on. Most of my info comes from family in NJ and CA. And it's hard to believe states would just reopen and let the virus spread. But that's what is happening. It's really unbelievable stuff.
Except for backing masks strongly, I feel like I was too quiet and mild about what I feared was going to happen, and basically what was inevitably going to happen given the behavior of the US population and the gov'ts. I haven't focused on numbers and data and trends in the US, but just kept focused on how to stop transmission of a respiratory virus. It's not that hard to do. A 10-12 week fairly strong national lockdown with mask wearing in public places would have limited the spread, the infections, the deaths the harm to the economy. And plenty of unemployed folks should have been employed as contact tracers. So mini-outbreaks could be stamped out quickly.
This endless rolling disaster was avoidable and an embarrassing failure. It really is sad. Have to say I'm glad I'm not in the US. I was intending to return for a month in December, for the first time since 2008, but the way things are, I doubt I'll venture into what will likely still be a medium to high-risk zone. We'll see.
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5 (45.5%)